


Down the Hill

by Stripe



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Gen, Ghosts, Humanstuck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-26
Updated: 2016-07-26
Packaged: 2018-07-26 19:49:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7587571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stripe/pseuds/Stripe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's a ghost in Jade's room, and all she wants to do is go sledding.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Down the Hill

**Author's Note:**

  * For [oxfordRoulette](https://archiveofourown.org/users/oxfordRoulette/gifts).
  * Inspired by [There and Back Again: A Summary of HSO Bonus Prompts](https://archiveofourown.org/works/539589) by [oxfordRoulette](https://archiveofourown.org/users/oxfordRoulette/pseuds/oxfordRoulette). 



> This is a remix of one of oxfordRoulette's HSO Bonus Round fills! Specifically the one marked "St. Olaf - Aradia Megido and Jade Harley." 
> 
> The original fic was very cute and light-hearted, so I attempted to retell it with a more bittersweet tone and delve a little more into Aradia's backstory. Enjoy!

Jade's dorm room has always been a little bit strange. The lights flicker, even when the rest of the rooms and the hallways are steadily lit. Things creak, and occasionally objects fall from her desk as though an invisible figure has knocked them over. The ongoing joke among her friends is that the room is haunted, but when Rose dutifully brought in a ouji board, the only thing the words spelled out was "BUTTS," over and over again. Rose is convinced the culprit was Dave, but Jade has her money on John; either way, neither boy has fessed up to it.

Jade has never really believed in ghosts before. Fantasy stories are fun, but she is a scientist, and she won't believe in something until there is at least some evidence that it exists. She won't believe the ghost is there until she's seen it with her own two eyes.

It's the first snow of the season, and it's a good one - enough inches down to cancel classes, but perfect and feathery and light. The conditions for sledding are ideal, and there are more than enough hills on campus to choose from. Jade returns to her dorm room with a cafeteria tray tucked under her arm, brushing her bangs back from her face. 

When she opens her door, she screams.

Standing by the window, staring out at the freshly fallen snow, is a girl with long, dark hair, even curlier than Jade's. At first, Jade is ready to fend her off with her stolen cafeteria tray, but then she notices that her visitor is translucent. Her eyes widen, but before she can think to react, the girl turns to speak to her.

"Oh, don't mind me," she says, voice distant. "I am simply watching the snow. I won't hurt you."

Jade bites her lip and looks up and down the hall, just to check that nobody is rushing to her aid. No doors open, and there is no sound of footsteps echoing down the stairwell. Either she's alone, or her neighbors are minding their business. Carefully, she steps inside and shuts her door behind her.

"Um... so are you a real ghost?" Jade asks. 

The ghost girl smiles back at her. "I am indeed. You can call me Aradia, though."

"Well... hi, Aradia!" Jade musters up a smile. At the very least she is being haunted by a very friendly ghost. "My name is Jade."

"I know. I have lived with you for the past semester."

Jade tries to shake off the discomfort of being watched for several months by an entity she didn't know was there. "Then why are you only showing yourself now?" Jade asks. 

"I always appear at the first snow," she explains. "It corresponds to when I died, so my spiritual energies are strongest when the snow returns again." Her eyes drift down to where Jade is holding her cafeteria tray. "What's that?"

"This?" Jade holds it up so that the ghost can see better. "I'm going sledding with my friends later tonight. We don't have a real sled, but they don't really pay attention to whether or not all of their cafeteria trays are around."

Aradia brightens at that - quite literally. It's like Jade has a weak, human-shaped heat lamp in her room. "Sledding, you say? Do you mind if I join you?"

Jade cocks her head to the side, frowning. "Um.... I guess not," she says. "But you're a ghost. How are you going to sled? Also, I think my friends would find it pretty weird if I brought a ghost along with me."

"Oh, don't worry about that," Aradia assures her, still beaming. "Your friends won't be able to see me. And I won't take up any space at all - I will just latch onto you. I am incorporeal, after all."

This is definitely weird, Jade muses, but she's never been one to turn down a new and exciting experience. "Well... okay then! Of course you can tag along."

"Perfect! And if you wouldn't mind, there is one particular hill I think you should try..."

\----

The four of them (plus one invisible tag along) stand on top of the hill, looking down.

"You know, this is kind of steeper than I thought it'd be," John says. 

"Yeah, aren't there like rumors about somebody dying trying to sled down this thing?" Dave adds, shoving his hands into his pockets. "Like, I'm all about embracing my inner winter sportsman here, but if I'm gonna kick the bucket in college there are better ways to go."

"It'll be fine," Jade assures him. "I am a physics major - I can assure you that so long as you keep going straight down, you will not get hurt. There is a lot of clear area at the bottom that you can use to slow down in."

"Do I hear you claiming the first run, then?" Rose asks, raising an eyebrow. Jade looks over her shoulder, where Aradia's silhouette is hanging. The ghost gives her an almost imperceptible nod. 

"Yeah! Just watch."

Jade sets down her tray and positions herself - butt on the back, knees folded up, hands on either side. She feels Aradia's spirit settle over her, and the world around her changes, losing color and flickering like old film. She loses herself.

_The four of them stand on the top of the hill, looking down._

_"This is, uh.... a lot steeper than I thought it'd be," Tavros says, wringing his hands._

_"It's fine!" comes Vriska's sharp voice. "Don't tell me you guys are going to chicken out now. I didn't think I'd made friends with a bunch of babies!"_

_"No reason to be scared as long as our sleds fly true," Terezi reasons. "Just go straight down. There's plenty of room for the sled to slow down at the bottom. The defense sees no reason to chicken out, do you?" It's issued as a friendly challenge - Aradia supposes she must be the prosecution._

_"We won't chicken out," Aradia says, and she sets down the sled. "Who wants to go first?"_

_A dead silence falls over the group. After a few seconds, Vriska steps forward, but rather than volunteering herself, she claps a hand on Tavros's shoulder. "I think we all know how much Nitram here wants to prove how braaaaaaaave he is. Don't you Tavros?"_

_"Uh, I do-"_

_"Of course you do! Just sit down already; we don't have all night." Vriska shoves him in the general direction of the sled. Tavros looks petrified, but he begins to sit anyways._

_Aradia watches with a frown. She knows she won't be able to talk Vriska out of forcing Tavros to go - Vriska will complain, and Tavros will feel compelled to insist he can do it. But she can make it easier on him. "We can go together," Aradia offers. "The sled is big enough for two, see?"_

_Tavros gives her a grateful look, and they manage to position themselves properly - Aradia in front, Tavros in back. Aradia scoots the sled up until it's just at the edge of the hill, ready to go down with just the slightest_

_"Ready?" she asks Tavros, looking over her shoulder to be sure he's alright. He's grinning down at her._

_"Ready!"_

_"Have fun," Vriska snaps from behind them, and before Aradia can push off properly, the sled gets shoved forward, like it was kicked._

_Immediately, things go out of control. Rather than_

_Aradia can feel Tavros fly off of the sled as it spins wildly out of control. She reaches out a hand to try and stop him, but he's already gone. The motion throws her center of balance, and she goes too, tumbling down steep hill._

_WIth the thick layer of powdery snow, it's impossible to see the danger: a boulder, looking like an innocent lump under a white blanket of snow. Even if Aradia could have seen it, though, she'd have had no way of dodging with her body as out of control as it is. Her head falls back heavily with a loud **crack** , and a trail of red follows her the rest of the way down the hill._

_When Aradia stops moving, she's lying on her back in the snow, staring up at the night sky. Her visions already going dark, her ears ringing with shock. She can't feel her fingers. Everything is so cold._

_The last thing she sees are too figures, frantically running down the hill._

_The last thing she hears is Terezi's voice._

_"Vriska, what did you_ do? _"_

"Oh my god, Jade! Are you okay?"

Jade blinks, and the scene from years ago is gone, replaced by the worried faces of her three friends, looking down at her. She blinks again, lashes brushing away cool moisture - she can't tell if it's melted snow or tears. 

"Yeah, I'm fine!" Jade assures them, sitting up and brushing snow off of her winter coat. Her cafeteria tray lays off to the side, broken in half, and the amount of snow kicked up around her implies her journey down had been anything but smooth. Jade knows she must have wiped out hard, but she feels fine. In fact, she doesn't even feel cold. 

"That was a fucking impressive wipeout," Dave says. "Like I honest to god thought you were gonna die, and we'd have your grandpa up here threatening us with a gun for letting his granddaughter get into trouble."

"Really, I'm fine," Jade assures him. "And I promise that if my grandpa tried to threaten you with a gun, I would come back as a ghost and tell him to leave you alone." 

John offers her a hand up, which Jade gladly takes. He's saying something to her, but Jade doesn't really register it. Floating behind him is Aradia's ghost. None of the others seem to be able to see her, but she's glowing softly, bathed in a warm sort of light. Jade can't hear what she says over the sound of John's voice, but reading her lips is easy enough.

"Thank you."

Then, just like that, she's gone. 

"Jade?" Rose's voice brings her back to attention. "Are you sure you're okay? You seem a little dazed."

"Really, I am _fine_ ," Jade says for the third time. "But I think that maybe we shouldn't sled down this hill unless we get actual sleds. Cafeteria trays are not very stable!"

"Now that's something I agree with," Dave says. "Let's get out of here and some place warm."

"I've got hot chocolate back at my room," John offers.

"Then by all means," Rose says, "lead us there."

It's a long way back uphill, but Jade smiles all the way.


End file.
